The nine lives of Rose Weasley
by Pistols-at-dawn
Summary: Rose Weasley will use all of her Slytherin cunning to get herself placed in Gryffindor. But when her mother confronts her with a dark secret about her own existance, Rose suddenly finds herself fighting to be sorted into a house at all. After all, Hogwarts is for humans. Four students from four houses will see the truth, and Rose will not be among them.
1. Chapter 1

"Goodbye Rose!" Shouted Ron, waving, as his duatgher ran through the barrier into platrom 93/4. She grinned at him and waved, he had been shouting "goodbye" every few minutes since theyd left the house this morning. sure enough, he ran through the barrier a few seconds later and shouted "goodbye!" twice more before he actually left.

Finally, though, Ron left with Hugo and Hermione and the books they hadn't been able to convince Rose to bring, and Rose sat down on a bench to read a magazine. It was her first year, but she knew she would be in Gryffindor with her cousin James, and Albus once he was sorted. even without them, she wouldn't have wanted for popularity, of course, as the daughter of two war heroes, but she had no intention of sitting back and waiting for her famous relatives to support her. Rose Weasely had _plans_.

Plans that would get her sorted into Slytherin if she weren't careful, she reminded herself, so shed best think brave Gryffindor thoughts until she was safely sorted.

"hey, wanna go throw eggs at Scorpius Malfoy?" Suggested a voice

_Ooh, nice, very Gryffindor_ Rose thought, and commended herself for such a realistic attitude.

"Oy! Rose!" The real owner of the Gryffindor voice said from behind her. "Stop daydreaming and come help me throw eggs!" Rose turned around and rolled her eyes at James potter, who grinned and flicked his wand at her throwing a shower of glitter into her face.

"Nice to see your back with us in the land of the living" he said. "everyone else stopped to talk to your parents, so we've got a few minutes before they notice us"

rose blinked momentarily, then gave her cousin a wicked grin. They had always been partners in crime, an arrangement that worked the best for everyone. Rose had always thought of James as the perfect Gryffindor, he was bold, reckless, fun, and divided the world unambiguously into friends and foe. If she wanted to be the Gryffindor princess she knew she would be, she could think of no better role model. And for James, a cunning little sidekick was the perfect thing to elevate his games from juvenile pranks to the next generation of marauders.

And rose really did enjoy the pranks, she thought, as she accepted the eggs her cousin was offering. an ulterior motive didn't preclude a mischievous attitude.

XXxsexxxXXy

"Augh!" Shouted Scorpius, trying to flee from the swarm of eggs that was hovering calmly around his head. Every so often an egg would break away from the pack and divebomb the unfortunate young wizard, and he had yet to shake them.

Rose grinned, from where she was hiding, and fist-bumped James. Her upgrade had made the prank more magically draining for the second year, but James was always eager to show off his magic, and he didn't seem to be straining to much yet.

"You two really are incredibly mature and kind" Albus potter said from behind them, in a calmly detached voice. James took this as his cue to burst out laughing.

"We really are, you know." he agreed, wiping his eyes. "We ought to be Prefects" Rose nodded solemnly.

Albus rolled his eyes. "Rose, your mum was looking for you." he said, as he stepped past them to go help Scorpius. James grumbled at his brothers interference.

"I'd better go find mum, then." Rose said. She stood up, nodded at James, and swept away. The train had already arrived, so she wondered what was so important it was worth making her possibly late to get on. Probably books.

"Mum?"

"Rose. Over here." Rose frowned at her mothers oddly serious whisper. Something serious was going on.

"Mum, what's-" Hermione shook her head and drew rose with her into a corner of the station. The other kids were already piling onto the train, so no one was looking at them. Hermione pulled out her wind and made a complicated series of gestures, that cut out all of the sound from the rest of the station. Her lips compressed into a thin line, and she looked down.

"Rose, I've been keeping something from you. Something important" She said. "I should have told you earlier but, I waiting until you were older."

Rose didn't say anything. It was clear her mother had this planned out, and if she wanted to hear it she should let her speak.

"The truth is," Hermione continued "Ron isn't your real father. I've cast glamors over you, to make you look like you ought to, but when you arrive at Hogwarts, they will fade without my help. I- I don't know what to do about it, except to ask that someone with magic cast the glamors for you… or visit myself, but-" she trailed off.

"If Dad isn't.. actually dad, then who…?" Rose asked

Hermione looked up. "Your real father is… Crookshanks!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Crookshanks?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow. Hermione nodded. Rose could remember their old cat, though he had died several years ago, an elderly housecat, Crookshanks had always paid special attention to her. She had thought he just took a liking to her, now she knew the true reason.

"Rose you are actually a half-cat" Hermione explained "I'm not sure what you'll look like without the glamor- I haven't let it fade since you were young. You used to be a furry little kitten baby… you had your fathers nose" She smiled at something Rose couldn't see.

Hermiones smile dropped and she stared at the floor again. Rose waited to see if she would saya nything more, but the confession seemed to be all she had to offer. Not wanting to miss her train, Rose leaned over and whispered in her mother ear.

"Don't trouble yourself over it, mum. I can handle anything."

Hermione looked up, starled out of her thoughts, but her daughter was already halfway across the platform, moving in that lithe, cat-foot way she did when she had been promised a challenge, and was determined to meet it. Somehow, for that exact moment, Hermione saw Dumbledore striding across the platform in the form of an eleven year old girl who could take charge of everything but her curly hair.

XXxxzxxXX

Later, on the train

"Roooooose." James said, in his lowest twelve-year old vioce. "ROOOOSE." His cousin looked up from her book, aqnd lowered her hand: she had been absently rubbing the edge of her ear as if she were expecting to feel something different there.

"Nice jeans." she nodded at his muggle clothing. James scoffed.

"I'll change later. How come you aren't in the gryffandor section?" He asked. his younger brother, who had tagged along with him, opened his mouth to speak, but james kicked him in the shin.

"apparently you missed this, James, but I'm not a Gryffindor quite yet. And frankly, I think I might have bigger problems at the moment." Rose said. James grinned, she didn't.

"Unfortunately, I'm sincere." She continued. "I'll fill you in later. For now, I need your eyes." She motioned James to sit across from her: he motioned Albus to go away and bother someone else. It was an impressive amount to gesture with just one finger, Rose thought.

Albus gave them a look that reminded them of their grandmother Molly, and left without comment. James ducked his head with a grin.

"Wow, Miss serious! I bet you don't trust the train enough to tell me here, huh?" he guessed. Rose shook her head. "Alright, what do I do?" Rose allowed herself a grim smile for the first time since her mother had revealed her secret. James would strip to his underwear and do the makerana on top of the train if she said it would help: it was just who he was. She knew her mum wanted her to keep this a secret, and she wouldn't be pleased if Rose told James. But if Mum couldn't be bothered to so much as mention this until there was no time to plan whatsoever, then Rose couldn't be bothered to give a damn. James was the Lusious Malfoy to her Voldemort, uh, the uh Bellatrix to her, no, _damn._ He was the GRYFFINDOR minion to her GRIFFINDOR leader. She just couldn't think of any right now.

"I nee dyou to keep an eye on my eyes." Rose said. "Tell me when they turn yellow." According to the reading she was desperately doing right now, the eyes would be the first to chenge. How long they lasted would tell her how much time she had.

"They're brown." James informed her. "Uh… you ever heard of mirrors?"

There was a pause, then Rose slammed her head on the table. "Oh. i forgot."

James laughed. "Given your hair, I thought you might have forgotten about mirrors. Too much reading for the brain." He produced a handheld mirror with a flick of his hand: not magic, but muggle illusionist tricks.

"Thanks, james." Rose said, rubbing her eyes. She checked them in the mirror to be sure: still brown. "I'm a little stressed."

"I can tell." he leaned his chin on his hand, watching her. "Would it help if I told you I had a secret too?"

Rose looked at her book, and closed it with a sigh. She wouldn't be any less productive listening to her primary confident than reading about all the ways she couldn't solve her problem. at least james was sure to promise a distraction. "I'm all ears." she said.

XXxx9livesxXX

"Ow! that was my foot!" Rose hissed

"Sorry. Invisble, you know?"

"This is so cool."

"I know."

"I can't belive your father gave you an invisibility cloak!"

"Shhh! They'll hear us!"

"Who'll hear us?" Scorpius asked his friend.

"What?" his friend looked at him strangley. "I didn't say anything."

"You didn't?"

"No."

"Funny, i thought i heard something." The other slytherin shrugged, and James and Rose breathed a sigh of relief under the cloak. The older boy glared at his cousin, and the two continued as quietly as possible down the train. James could have sworn Rose could walk like a cat when she wanted to. If only she could keep her mouth quiet, too.

"What happened to-" Rose stared to say, just as Scorpius said "Oh, there you are Albus!"

"What?!" James and Rose said at the same time, and way too loudly. Everyone, including Albus, who had just walked in, turned to look at the empty air. The cousins looked at each other under the cloak, and with one mind, took off running. There were some shouts behind them, but they didn't hear their names, only the words "Invisible" and "gryffindors"

"How dare he!?" James shouted, panting, as he ripped off the cloak. They had made it past the Hufflepuff areas without getting discovered, and they'd wedged themselves under a luggage rack between compartments. Rose frowned.

"They thought we were older." She deduced "Old enough to turn ourselves invisible. But in the future we'll have to be more careful."

"I don't care if they think we were ghosts! Albus is fraternizing with those, those-"

"Discarded snake skins?" Rose suggested "Mediocre dunces?"

"Yes. All of those. " James glowered at an owl in a cage, as if to suggest that it was all its fault. The owl squeaked and preened its toes.

"Maybe he's spying on the enemy." Rose said without much sincerety. "Getting their secrets."

"No, that's what WE were doing!" James said, pointing at the invisiblity cloak. "HE was btraying us."

"Actually, I thought we were planning to drop firecrakers down their-"

"That's not the point!" James crumpled the cloak into a ball and shoved it into his bag. "He's a traitor."

"If he's a traitor, we can deal with him. We'll ask him first- he's-" The train whistle intereupted Roses thoughts. They were here. And despite James's distraction, she was still a half-cat.


End file.
